


Nine Minutes

by mldrgrl



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst, F/M, Misunderstanding, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 09:16:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19170268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mldrgrl/pseuds/mldrgrl
Summary: Written for a prompt where Scully believes Melissa and Mulder are a thing.





	Nine Minutes

November 5, 1994

3:22 p.m.

 

Scully had been released from the hospital exactly one week ago and the monotony of recovery was driving her insane.  The shock of discovering she’d lost three months of her life had worn off, and now she wanted answers, wanted to get back to work, wanted things to go back to normal.  She was sick of her mother hovering, sick of her sister offering to do ‘smudge her aura,’ whatever that entailed, and sick of her brother making ‘I told you so’ inferences about her ‘dangerous and dead-end career.’  The only person who hadn’t treated her like a Faberge egg this whole time was Mulder.

 

Finally managing to convince her mother she was fit to drive and return to her own apartment, the first thing she did, after buying enough groceries to restock her fridge for the next week, was drive to Mulder’s.  She parked her car and sat for just a moment regarding the front of the building. The last time she’d been to Mulder’s apartment, which to her felt like days ago, it was the beginning of summer. The trees lining the streets had been lush and green.  Now, they were bare.

 

As she sat and contemplated, a woman burst from the front doors of Mulder’s building and skipped down the stairs, heading down the street towards the east corner.  Scully had to do a double-take. From behind, it looked like her sister, but what would her sister be doing at Mulder’s apartment? By the time Scully got out of the car and crossed the street, the woman was gone.

 

Putting it out of her mind, Scully entered the narrow lobby of Mulder’s building and headed past the row of mailboxes to the elevator.  It was warm in the corridor and she could hear the heat hissing from the radiator. She unzipped her jacket as she entered the elevator and pressed the fourth floor.

 

The first thing Scully noticed upon exiting the elevator was that the olive green carpet that used to be in the hallway had been torn up and beige, honeycomb-patterned tile was in its place.  Her shoes squeaked a little on the way down to Mulder’s door.

 

Almost immediately after knocking, the door opened and Scully was caught off-guard, almost forgetting why she had come to his apartment in the first place.  He was in a pair of black shorts, shirtless, his chest and shoulder slick with sweat.

 

“Scully!”  His eyes widened and he stepped back from the door.  “Uh, come in, come in. I thought you were...uh...”

 

“Should I go?” she asked.  “Am I...interrupting something?”

 

“No, no, um...come in.”

 

She hesitated, but crossed the threshold.  She’d encountered a half-naked Mulder several times in the time that they’d been partnered and never had he acted so nervous and embarrassed, like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  It was clear he’d been exerting himself somehow, and she had the fleeting thought that it was lucky she had knocked and hadn’t used the key he gave her. She felt her cheeks grow warm and she dropped her head, now nervous and embarrassed herself.

 

“Let me just, um…”  Mulder pointed vaguely towards the door past his living area and backed away.

 

“I really could come back another time.”

 

“No, no.  It’s okay.  I’ll only be a minute.”

 

Scully stood awkwardly in his foyer, her feet rooted in place.  She had wanted to come here to thank him for everything he’d done for her in the months she was missing, everything he’d done for her mother.  She’d been told how tirelessly he worked, how torn to pieces he’d seemed (her mother’s words), and the vigil he kept by her bedside. She wanted him to know she was grateful, that she…

 

Scully’s thoughts trailed off as he eyes caught a glimpse of a forest green sweater hanging delicately on his coat rack.  It was long and feminine with a knitted matching belt drooping off threaded loops at the waist. It looked familiar, but it certainly didn’t belong to Mulder.  So, she had interrupted something and by the looks of it, there was someone, a woman, in his apartment somewhere. She didn’t know why, but her eyes clouded with a sheen of tears.

 

“Mulder,” she called out.  “I’m just gonna…I’ll see you at the office on Monday.”

 

“Wait!”  Mulder tripped through the doorway, tying a robe closed around his waist.  “Wait, a second.”

 

She avoided eye contact with him and avoided looking towards the coat rack.  “I just wanted to stop by to thank you.”

 

“Thank me?”

 

“For...not giving up.  For…”

 

“I could never give up on you, Scully.  I want you to know that I searched as hard as I could.  As much as I have for Samantha.”

 

“I know,” she answered, a sense of shame flooding over her.  She never wanted to be a replacement for his sister and she suddenly wondered if he was disappointed that she had come back, but Samantha was still out there somewhere.  “I’m sorry that…”

 

“What are you sorry for?”  He stepped closer to her and lifted a hand as though he were going to touch her, but he dropped his arm and then they were toe to toe.  His proximity was a little overwhelming for some reason. She wanted to reach out to him, wrap her arms around him, ask him to wrap her arms around her.  She felt desperate to get back to normal, and what normal meant for her, was being with Mulder.

 

She shook her head a little, unable to think of how to express her regret to him for not being his sister, but they were interrupted by a knock on the door.  Mulder frowned and stepped away. She sucked in a breath.

 

“Sorry,” said a breathless woman, her voice instantly recognizable to Scully.  “I forgot my sweater.”

 

Scully’s head snapped up and she blinked in surprise.  Her sister had just pushed past Mulder through the door and had a hand on the green sweater hanging from the coat rack.

 

“Melissa?”

 

“Dana?”

 

There was a long pause of awkward silence where Scully’s gaze shifted from her sister to Mulder and back to her sister.  Melissa toyed with the teardrop charm swinging from her choker. Mulder rubbed at the back of his head.

 

“I’ll go,” Scully and Melissa both said, almost simultaneously.

 

But, Scully was the one that moved first, pushing through the space between Mulder and Melissa to move through the door.

 

“Scully,” Mulder said.

 

“Dana, wait.”

 

“I’ll see you on Monday,” she said, walking briskly to the elevator without looking back.  The doors opened as soon as she pressed the button and she finally turned, glancing only briefly at Melissa, hugging her sweater, and Mulder behind her in his robe.

 

******

 

November 5, 1994

3:13 p.m.

 

It had been a long time since Mulder had a good run.  Not since before Scully had been taken, but now she was back, and she would be back to work on Monday (too soon and not soon enough in his conflicted opinion) and he was trying to get back to normal.  He’d spent the morning shaping up the office into something Scully could be proud to return to. Okay, maybe not proud, but not so much of a pigsty that she’d turn on her heel and walk right back out again.  He’d kind of let things lapse in the months she’d been missing.

 

After a morning organizing and cleaning, he had to get out, so he’d driven back home and changed into some running shorts and a t-shirt, despite the crisp fall weather, and hit the pavement.  He managed a full hour, out of his neighborhood to a large park a short drive away where he did a few laps and then sprinted the last blocks home until he felt like his heart and lungs might burst.

 

Breathing hard and drenched in sweat, he pulled his soaked shirt off in the elevator on the way up to his floor.  He wiped his face with the dryer end of the shirt and then stopped short halfway down the hall, when he saw the woman at his door.

 

“Melissa?”  His heart, though still pounding from his brutal exercise, picked up again.  “Did something happen? Is Scully alright?”

 

“Dana’s fine,” Melissa said.  “I wanted to speak with you about something.”

 

“Uh.  Okay.”  He unzipped a small pocket at the side of his shorts and took out his key to open his door.  As soon as he opened the door, he was blasted by heat. “Dammit,” he muttered, leaving the door open for Melissa as he headed to the window.

 

The radiators in his building had been on the fritz for the last week, running too hot or not at all.  The superintendent promised to have someone in by the weekend to take a look at the boiler, but they still couldn’t seem to fix it.  Mulder opened the window to let some air in. He was already sweating and now he felt like he was in a sauna. Melissa was wearing a green sweater over a long black dress.  She plucked at the collar and he nodded towards the coat rack behind her. She pulled the sweater off and hung it up. It occurred to Mulder he should probably put a shirt on, but he was too damn hot.

 

“Can I get you anything?” Mulder asked.  “Uh...I might have...well, I have water.”

 

“No, I’m fine.  I wanted to talk to you about Dana.”

 

“What about Dana?”

 

“She’s back home today.  I think Mom was driving her a little crazy.”

 

“Your mom?  Really?”

 

“She’s a mom.  You know what they’re like.”

 

Mulder made a non-committal noise.  No, he wasn’t too sure what moms were like.  He knew what his mother was like and he knew what Mrs. Scully was like.  That was like saying a banana was the same as an ice cream sundae.

 

“She told us she was going back to work on Monday,” Melissa continued.

 

“I know.”

 

“Do you think she’s ready for that?”

 

“It doesn’t really matter what I think.”

 

“I think she’d listen to you if…”

 

“If…?  If, what?  You want me to ask her to quit?  Is that it?”

 

“No.  Working for the FBI was a dream she didn’t even know she had.”

 

“Then what?”

 

“She pushes herself too hard sometimes.  She always has. She’s always trying to prove herself.”

 

“To who?”

 

“Our father, our brothers, to the world, to the FBI, to herself, to you.”

 

Mulder shook his head.  “She doesn’t have anything to prove to me.  She...I knew everything I needed to know by the time we finished our first case together.”

 

“I’m sure you did.  I also think you know by now, even if you won’t admit it, that she uses responsibilities as a crutch to avoid her feelings.”

 

Mulder instantly thought back to the initial days and weeks after Scully’s father had died, how she’d almost begged him to allow her to stay on the case they were pursuing.  He thought about the forest mites that hospitalized them both and the handful of altercations she’d been in since partnered with him. All those ‘I’m fines’ he’d heard in the time he’d known her.

 

“You know I’m right,” Melissa said.

 

“What makes you think she’d listen to me.  She never has before.”

 

“It’s astonishing how absolutely blind two highly intelligent people can be.”

 

At this point, Mulder started to feel impatience creeping in.  “I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

 

“You’re in love with my sister.  She’s in love with you. Stop trying to fight it.”

 

It seemed to Mulder it grew exponentially hotter in his apartment that moment.  He backed away from Melissa and went back to the windows to fight with the second one, the one that always sticks, and try to get it open.  Melissa followed and he broke out into a new sweat all over again.

 

“I understand why she’s afraid of her own feelings,” Melissa said.  “But, I don’t know why you are.”

 

“She told you this?” Mulder asked, his voice strained in his battle with the window.

 

“She didn’t need to.  And you don’t either. It’s obvious in the way the air changes when you’re near each other.  That’s why you needed to be there in the hospital that night. She needed a reason to come back.”

 

Mulder gave up on the window and sagged forward, leaning against his desk.  He put his head down and breathed hard for a few moments, taking in air and letting his ribs expand and contract as he let it go.

 

“Her partnership is important to me,” he said.

 

“There is more to life than work.”

 

“Not to me.  There can’t be.  I can’t lose sight of…”

 

“Fine,” Melissa said.  She was angry at him and he could feel it.  His back tensed and he turned towards her as she walked away.

 

“I can’t be what she deserves,” he said.

 

“Maybe not.  Maybe I should’ve expected such emotional distance from the man who won’t even let people use his first name.”

 

“Hey, now!”  Mulder moved forward and Melissa defiantly stood her ground next to the table in his foyer, her face tilted up to his and eyes piercing.  It was so much like Scully that he stopped abruptly in the doorway.

 

“If you’re both determined to reject happiness, that’s up to you.  Promise me that you’ll always be there for her.”

 

“Of course.”

 

“I mean it, Fox.  Promise me that she’s safe with you.”

 

He choked.  He couldn’t assure that kind of thing.  Of course he never wanted anything to happen to her and he would have her back the same as she had his, but he couldn’t make a promise that she’d never get hurt and that broke his heart.

 

“I’m not talking about your work,” Melissa said, breaking the strangled silence. 

 

“I thought...then what...what has this all been about?” he stammered.  “Why are you here?”

 

“Goodbye, Fox.”

 

Melissa left his standing in the doorway, hopelessly confused.  He felt rattled, like stomping his feet or exhausting himself on another run.  The merciless heat of the apartment sent him into a rage and he went back to the window, pulling at it with every ounce of strength, growling with frustration the whole time, until it slipped open an inch and then another.

 

Spent, he collapsed onto his couch, breathing hard.  He heard a noise in the hall, an annoying side effect of the new floors that had been installed a few weeks ago.  He missed the carpet. A few seconds later, there was a knock on his door and he jumped up. He didn’t feel like he had it in him to go another round with Melissa and he needed to send her away as quick as possible.

 

*****

 

April 15, 2000

10: 06 a.m.

 

It had been Mulder’s private habit for years, to drive out to the cemetery whenever he felt like he had something to tell her.  He stopped and picked up a bouquet of sunflowers from a florist nearby. Once he’d learned from an off-handed remark Scully had made about sunflowers being Melissa’s favorite, he’d started to bring them instead of the assorted arrangements he’d always brought before.

 

Morning was his preferred time to visit.  It was usually quieter and emptier. The ground was always damp in the mornings though, so he brought a folded blanket with him to sit on.  He laid the bouquet of sunflowers at the foot of Melissa’s headstone and arranged the blanket so he could sit comfortably before it. He brought his knees up and linked his hands over his shins.

 

“Well, I’ll just get right into it,” he said.  “A lot has happened since we last spoke, but I think you’ll be happy to know that your sister and I are officially...actually, you know what, I don’t know what we officially are, but we’re something.  We’re something more than what we’ve been. It’s only been a week, but…”

 

Mulder smiled a little, thinking of the last six days.  He tried to keep the night Scully slipped into his bed out of his thoughts, but that was almost impossible.  His smile widened into a grin and then a blush and he dropped his chin to his chest.

 

This was the first time he’d brought good news to Melissa.  He’d been here to rail at the injustice of Scully’s cancer, to beg for her no-holds-barred advice when he felt his partner slipping away from him when the x-files had been given to Diana and Agent Spender, to pour his grief out to someone when the failure of their IVF attempts hit him.  Never out of pure joy. He wasn’t even sure he’d known what pure joy was until this past week.

 

“We’re together,” Mulder said.  “In all ways someone can be together.  I think you’d be happy about that if you were here.  I mean, you’d probably say something like it was about time we both pulled our heads out of our asses.  But, you’d be happy.”

 

Mulder paused at the sound of a car approaching.  The car stopped, the engine cut off, and a car door opened and shut.  He heard footsteps in the grass and he tipped his head a little to the side.

 

“Mulder?”

 

*****

 

April 15, 2000

10: 15 a.m.

 

Of all things Scully expected to find at Melissa’s gravesite, Mulder wasn’t one of them.  She’d been thinking about her sister a lot lately and couldn’t remember the last time she’d been to the cemetery.  With plans for brunch with her mother for later in the morning, she figured she would take the opportunity to pay a visit.

 

“Mulder?” she asked, walking up behind him where he sat hunched before her sister’s headstone.

 

“Hey, Scully.”

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

“Had some things to talk to your sister about.”

 

“Oh.”

 

He was sitting on a blanket and he scooted over a little and patted the other side as she approached.  She knelt down next to him and then reached out to touch the petals of the sunflowers that lay at the foot of the headstone.  When she sat back, Mulder took her hand and laced their fingers together. She leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder.

 

“I forgot,” Scully said.

 

“Forgot what?”

 

“You and she...well, it was never any of my business.”

 

Mulder leaned away from Scully and craned his head to look at her.  “Melissa and I? What do you mean?”

 

“Whatever your relationship was.”

 

“I don’t think you could call it a relationship, but I liked your sister.  I was a little afraid of her too, to be honest.”

 

It was Scully’s turn to tip her head and give Mulder a sideways glance.  “Like I said, none of my business.”

 

“Do you….Scully, are you implying that you think Melissa and I were…”

 

“Weren’t you?”

 

“What in the world gave you that idea?”

 

“That day in your apartment, whatever I interrupted, it didn’t seem…”

 

“It didn’t seem...are you telling me she never told you why she was there?”

 

“No.”

 

“Scully, this whole time you thought we had been...wow.”

 

Scully bit her bottom lip.  She had thought a lot more than that Mulder and Melissa had just been lovers.  The day she’d interrupted whatever she’d interrupted at Mulder’s apartment, she’d gone from thinking it had been lovemaking to a lover’s quarrel.  And then Melissa had taken off and it was months before she’d seen her again. In the brief days that she’d thought Emily was Melissa’s daughter, she’d also thought Mulder was the father.  Of course, she was wrong. Very wrong, it seemed.

 

“I suppose I didn’t want to know,” she said.

 

“Well, I’ll tell you why she was there, if you want to know now.  It’s part of why I’m here today.”

 

“Okay.”

 

“She wanted me to promise I’d keep you safe.”

 

“That’s impossible.  Especially with our line of work.”

 

“She wasn’t talking about work.  That’s what I thought too, but she wasn’t talking about work.”

 

“Then what was she talking about?”

 

“She said we were in love with each other.”

 

“Mulder that was...five years ago.”

 

“So, she was wrong?”

 

Scully didn’t answer.  She picked at the grass next to her hip.  Mulder gave her hand a squeeze.

 

“I don’t think she was wrong,” he said.  “I didn’t exactly argue that point with her then, and I wouldn’t now.”

 

Scully sucked in a breath and let it out slowly with her eyes closed.  Mulder let go of her hand and put his arm around her shoulders. She leaned against him and wrapped her arms around his torso.

 

“I think she was telling me not to break your heart,” he said.  “I wanted her to know that I understand that now and I promise. You’ll always be safe with me, Dana.”

 

“Dana?”  Scully scrunched her face a little and made a noise.  “It sounds so serious when you say my name.”

 

“I am serious.”

 

Scully breathed deeply and stared at Melissa’s headstone, the gilded name and dates.  Beloved sister and daughter. And friend, she thought.

 

“I have to meet my mother for lunch,” Scully said, running her hand over Mulder’s chest.

 

“I know.  You told me last night.”

 

“Would you like to come with me?”

 

“Your mom won’t mind?”

 

“I think she’d be happy to see you.  And thrilled that I brought a date.”

 

“I’d love to be your date.”

 

“Good.”  She disentangled herself from Mulder and stood, brushing the back of her jeans off with one hand.

 

While Mulder picked up the blanket off the ground, Scully touched the top of Melissa’s headstone.  She mouthed a silent prayer and then crossed herself. When she turned back, she reached for Mulder’s hand.

 

The End


End file.
